Beauties queuing up to be America’s Next Top Model flipped out and began a stampede when a car overheated in Manhattan this week. The casting call had attracted thousands of aspiring model/reality show personalities to the Park Central Hotel on West 55th Street.

But, as the New York Daily News reports, “An overheating car triggered a stampede of catwalk-craving cuties,” while the Post adds, “The situation spiraled further out of control when a man hurtled over a barricade and slapped one of the girls in line.” Perhaps showing why they are models and not rocket scientists, the girls feared the car would explode, while others screamed that the man had a gun.

A woman waiting for her chance told the News, “The girls were running like it was 9/11 part two. I feared for my life.” Ultimately, three people were arrested for disorderly conduct and inciting a riot and six people were injured.

Usual Suspects star Gabriel Byrne has gone to war on “dumbos” who want to block the view from his luxury New York apartment. Byrne, 58, lives with his two kids Jack and Romy in a gigantic brownstone apartment in Brooklyn, New York, and is just a stone’s throw from the Broadway theatres where he performs and the set of his US television show, In Treatment.

But developers have announced plans to erect a giant skyscraper in the area where he lives which is affectionately known as “DUMBO” – short for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. Dubliner Byrne believe the 18-storey building will block beautiful views of the Brooklyn Bridge and just doesn’t fit the community of converted four- and five-storey warehouses.

Raged Byrne: “This huge building will dwarf the bridge on the Brooklyn side, causing irreparable damage to the bridge’s singular and majestic presence.” He submitted his bitter objections to a city planning meeting last week.

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